Dec. 22, 2011 SCOKY Minutes posted at AOC Web Site. Click on this to access PDF.
Decisions: 196-211
16 decisions with 10 published
Click here for this month's minutes (case names, questions presented for published decisions, and links to full text of each published and nonpublished decision)
Click here for an index to all monthly minutes of SCOKY.
PUBLISHED DECISIONS (Number, NAME, ISSUE AND LINK TO FULL TEXT):
196. ELECTION LAW. GOVERNMENTAL IMMUNITY RE 1983 ACTIONS.
STACIE L. COOK V. LISHA POPPLEWELL, ETC.
Questions Presented:
Constitutional Law. Elections. Employment discrimination. Issues include whether a 1st or 14th Amendment liberty interest protects public employees from being fired for candidacy for public office and whether county officials sued officially are immune from § 1983 actions.
197. COUNTY ROADS. STANDING.
REUBIN BAILEY V. PRESERVE RURAL ROADS OF MADISON COUNTY, INC.,
2009-SC-000417-DG MADISON
Questions Presented:
County Roads. KRS 178.116. Issues include respondents' standing to seek the resumption of county maintenance and removal of gates installed by movant where landowners who access their property via road discontinued as a county road have not petitioned jointly to close the road to public use.
198. CRIMINAL LAW. GUILTY PLEA.
LARRELL JARVOR PORTER V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
2010-SC-000189-MR MARION
Questions Presented:
Guilty Plea. Trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree, possession of drug paraphernalia and second degree PFO. Trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea, finding it was within the Commonwealth’s discretion to offer a plea deal conditioned on the defendant waiving his right to view a video of a drug buy, in order to protect the identity of a confidential informant.
199. WORKERS COMPENSATION. EQUAL PROTECTION AND PNEUMOCONIOSIS
VISION MINING INC. V. JESSEE GARDNER
2010-SC-000311-WC FROM COA
Questions Presented:
Workers’ Compensation. Whether KRS 342.316’s consensus procedure and “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard for overcoming an unfavorable consensus deny workers claiming benefits for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis equal protection by treating them differently than workers who claim benefits for other occupational pneumoconioses or diseases.
200. CRIMINAL LAW. SENTENCING. BAD ACTS EVIDENCE.
JAMES L. “HOPSING” MILLER V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
2010-SC-000562-MR ADAIR
Questions Presented:
20 year sentence upon remand for resentencing. Introduction of defendant’s prior bad acts during the penalty stage did not constitute palpable error. It was not palpable error for one armed guard to closely accompany the defendant during the resentencing.
201. CRIMINAL LAW. RESTITUTION.
THOMAS E. JONES, JR. V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
2010-SC-000328-MR HICKMAN
Questions Presented:
Challenge to restitution, court costs, and jail fee assessed by the trial court after accepting a guilty plea. Imposition of restitution violated defendant’s right to due process. KRS 532.032. Imposition of court costs reversed and imposition of jail fee affirmed.
202. CRIMINAL LAW. SENTENCING.
RACHEL BLACKBURN V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
2010-SC-000537-MR LAWRENCE
Questions Presented:
First degree trafficking in a controlled substance and second degree PFO-40 years. Subsequent offenses run consecutively may not exceed the maximum aggregate duration allowed by KRS 532.110(1)(c). Such subsequent convictions may not run concurrent with a paroled offense.
203. EMPLOYMENT LAW. UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS. CALCULATING BASE PERIOD
KENTUCKY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE COMMISSION V. DAVID G. HAMILTON
2010-SC-000252-DG FAYETTE
Questions Presented:
KRS 341.090(2). Definition of “extended base period.” Time period for determining the wages to be used to calculate the unemployment benefits for a claimant who has suffered a job-related injury.
204. CRIMINAL LAW. JURISDICTION (FED VS. STATE ON DISMISSAL)
BEVERLY L. MILLER V. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS
2007-SC-000609-TG JEFFERSON
Questions Presented:
Decisions of federal court dismissing actions before it did not preclude state court action.
205. CRIMINAL LAW. SENTENCING.
DAVID HOFF V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
2010-SC-000167-MR CHRISTIAN
Questions Presented:
First degree rape and incest-Life sentence. Convictions reversed and case remanded for retrial because of the extensive use of inadmissible hearsay and the impermissible bolstering of the victim’s testimony.
